Friend hello, and welcome to this first episode of Autism & Neurodiversity with your hosts, Jason and Debbie!

In this episode, we're inviting you into our personal journey of raising neurodivergent kids who have experienced trauma, and how that led us to develop Neuro-Developmental Mentoring, or NDM for short. We'll share how the amazing breakthroughs in neurodiversity research have helped us better understand and nurture our children's growth and how they can help you too.

As we navigated the complexities of raising neurodivergent kids, we realized that traditional approaches weren't always enough. That's why we created the NDM Circle Community, a safe space where parents and professionals can find personalized resources and support for working with neurodivergent children, teens, and young adults.

This episode is all about rewriting the narrative for neurodivergent families and offering a fresh perspective on what true support can look like. Whether you're a parent, professional, or simply curious about neurodiversity, this podcast will give you the insights you need to foster well-being and development in truly meaningful ways.

About Jason & Debbie:

Debbie is a skilled Certified Parent Coach and Jason is a veteran Clinical Therapist who founded NeuroDev, a school and mentoring program for neurodivergent young adults, together we have 5 children, 3 of which are adopted and neurodivergent that we've raised into adulthood. ⁠

We practice and teach NDM or Neuro-Developmental Mentoring, a neuro-science backed, field-tested approach to support your child, teen, or young adult's well-being and development.⁠

📩 Want more insights and practical tools? Be sure to join our email list for inspiration and updates.

👉 For deeper support, join our NDM Circle Community at NDM.Circle.so—a space for parents and professionals navigating the complexities of parenting neurodivergent young people.

We're so honored to have Dr. Abby Jenkins and Dr. Todd Corelli both licensed psychologists with 30+ years of experience between them, to be our first guests on our show.

We’ve learned over the years that not all psychological evaluations are created equal. We invited Abby and Todd to share what goes into getting a good one because they do great ones. They also have great perspectives to share relating to a neurodiverse type diagnosis.

They do assessments and administer psychological and psycho-educational evaluations in order to clarify each individual’s psychological functioning, learning profile, and any learning difficulties for a wide range of potential problems including ADHD, executive functioning, other learning disorders, depression, Bipolar Disorder, anxiety disorders, Autism, personality disorders, trauma, addiction and many other diagnostic issues.

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• What does a good psychologist do?
• What goes into getting a good psych eval and why it’s worth investing in a good one.
• What is needed to diagnose Autism or other neurodiverse diagnoses.
• What they say to parents hesitant to put labels on their child.
• What advise they have for parents.

Featured on the Show:

• Where to find Dr. Abby Jenkins: abbyjenkinsphd.com
• Where to find Dr. Todd Corelli: drtoddtalks.com
• For more support visit: NDM.Circle.so

👉 If this episode resonated with you, we’d love for you to leave a quick 5 star review sharing your favorite takeaway. It helps us create more meaningful content for listeners like you.

📩 Want more insights and practical tools? Be sure to join our email list for inspiration and updates.

🔵 For deeper support, consider joining our NDM Circle Community at NDM.Circle.so—a space for parents and professionals navigating the complexities of parenting neurodivergent young people.

In this first solo episode with Debbie, she talks about some of the challenges in neurodivergent parenting. You love your son or daughter and want them to be happy. You want the best for them, but it's hard to figure it out what to do.

There's a lot of conflicting advice and approaches out there. How do you know if you're doing it right? How do you know what's going to help your loved one?

Listen in as she points out from personal experience what positive results really boil down to- every time.

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• How do you know if you’re doing it right?
• Why you can say and do all the “right things” according to experts and still get a negative result.
• What positive results really boil down to- every time.
• Why doing the work on yourself is so worth it even if it’s hard.

Featured on the Show:

• Visit NeuroDevMentoring.com to learn more about out our specialized program for neurodivergent young adults.
• Follow Debbie on Instagram!

👉 If this episode resonated with you, we’d love for you to leave a quick 5 star review sharing your favorite takeaway. It helps us create more meaningful content for listeners like you.

📩 Want more insights and practical tools? Be sure to join our email list for inspiration and updates.

🔵 For deeper support, consider joining our NDM Circle Community at NDM.Circle.so—a space for parents and professionals navigating the complexities of parenting neurodivergent young people.

We are delighted to have Nichol, the Executive Director of Summit Achievement wilderness therapy program in Stow, ME, on our show. He is truly someone who “gets it” and does great work with autistic and neurodivergent clients. Nichol shares some great nuggets of insight and approaches like the concept of “safe struggle” from his experience working with this population that you will want to start using.

If you are unfamiliar with what wilderness programs are, this is a great introduction to one of the best for serving our communities’ young people. We discuss when a wilderness therapy program is appropriate for neurodivergent young people, especially when an outpatient clinical or residential setting isn’t working.

Listen in this week on our discussion and learn from Nichol’s great perspectives from years of experience and passion for his work.

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• The benefits of working through “safe struggle” to overcome challenges.
• Why the “outdoor effect” accelerates results.
• Why we don’t change when were comfortable.
• The advantage of wilderness therapy for neurodivergent young people.
• How the Summit hybrid wilderness model helps clients take what is learned outdoors and apply it in real life settings.
• Teaching “tone, tact and timing,” improving executive functioning skills and handling transitions.
• Why pot vaping can be attractive to neurodivergent young people

Featured on the Show:

• Nichol Ernst, LCSW
• Visit Summit Achievement to learn more about Nichol’s wilderness treatment program and Summit Traverse to learn more about their short-term therapeutic boarding school program.
• Link for Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH)
• Link for National Association for Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP)
• Visit NeuroDevMentoring.com to learn more about out our specialized program for neurodivergent young adults.
• Follow Debbie on Instagram!

👉 If this episode resonated with you, we’d love for you to leave a quick 5 star review sharing your favorite takeaway. It helps us create more meaningful content for listeners like you.

📩 Want more insights and practical tools? Be sure to join our email list for inspiration and updates.

🔵 For deeper support, consider joining our NDM Circle Community at NDM.Circle.so—a space for parents and professionals navigating the complexities of parenting neurodivergent young people.

In Jason’s first solo episode, he draws from a presentation he gave at a previous Young Adult Transition Association (YATA) conference. He has found one of the most successful treatments for the neurodivergent young adult population has nothing to do with treatment.

He goes into detail about the developmental model as it applies to neurodivergent young people. This understanding gives important insights into how to better influence children. It also helps you to be ready for which developmental stage that delays really become apparent.

This part 1 episode sets the stage for what a high school re-do is and why it’s often so needed.

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• Understanding the developmental model and applying it to neurodivergent young people.
• What stage delays become more obvious so you can be ready for it.
• The importance of a “high school re-do” for some young adults and what it can look like.
• What parents tend to focus the most on and why it’s a big mistake.
• The difference between performance versus well-being or doing well versus being well and it’s implications.
• Understanding primary, secondary, and tertiary issues with neurodiversity.
• Why and how to meet young people where they’re at to connect.

Featured on the Show:

• Visit NeuroDevMentoring.com to learn more about out our specialized program for neurodivergent young adults.
• Follow Debbie on Instagram!

👉 If this episode resonated with you, we’d love for you to leave a quick review sharing your favorite takeaway. It helps us create more meaningful content for listeners like you.

📩 Want more insights and practical tools? Be sure to join our email list for inspiration and updates.

🔵 For deeper support, consider joining our NDM Circle Community at NDM.Circle.so—a space for parents and professionals navigating the complexities of parenting neurodivergent young people.

We’re so happy Joanna came by for another visit at our school, NeuroDev. Joanna has her own podcast ‘Success Is Subjective’ that we enjoy listening to that you’ll want to check out, too. So, of course, we asked her to be a guest on our podcast and record an episode while she was with us.

Joanna is a Treatment Placement and Therapeutic Gap Year Consultant, who helps young adults and their families during the important transition time into adulthood.

Along with the many challenges of neurodivergent parenting, are the worrisome questions surrounding what will happen to them when they become an adult.

It doesn’t have to be a big, scary, looming black hole. There are many good options and supports out there, especially if we keep an open mind.

No matter the age of your neurodivergent son or daughter, this episode will help you better prepare for the important adult transition stage.

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• What you can’t overlook when planning for the transition to college or independence.
• What you can expect for a timeline.
• Why you need a plan for how to step back.
• When it may be a bad idea to push college.
• Why your focus may change when you consider the bigger picture.
• Options to help other than traditional college.
• The benefits of getting support for parenting a neurodivergent adult versus a neurodivergent child.

Featured on the Show:

• Find Joanna at lilleyconsulting.com, Success Is Subjective podcast, Instagram, facebook, and check out some great articles she’s written.
• Visit NeuroDevMentoring.com to learn more about out our specialized program for neurodivergent young adults.

About Jason & Debbie:

Debbie is a skilled Certified Parent Coach and Jason is a veteran Clinical Therapist who founded NeuroDev, a school and mentoring program for neurodivergent young adults, together we have 5 children, 3 of which are adopted and neurodivergent that we've raised into adulthood. ⁠

We practice and teach NDM or Neuro-Developmental Mentoring, a neuro-science backed, field-tested approach to support your child, teen, or young adult's well-being and development.⁠

👉 If this episode resonated with you, we’d love for you to leave a quick 5 star review sharing your favorite takeaway. It helps us create more meaningful content for listeners like you.

📩 Want more insights and practical tools? Be sure to join our email list for inspiration and updates.

🔵 For deeper support, consider joining our NDM Circle Community at NDM.Circle.so—a space for parents and professionals navigating the complexities of parenting neurodivergent young people.

In part 2, Jason continues to draw from a presentation he gave at a Young Adult Transition Association (YATA) conference.

Jason gets to the heart of why we need to throw out the usual timelines for neurodivergent teens and young adults and makes the case for a high school re-do.

He shares the short list he uses at NeuroDev as a barometer of where a student is at and offers four ways to motivate a teen or young adult to get their unmet and underdeveloped needs met.

Those needs go far beyond just educational and performative tasks.

He takes a hard look at how we may contribute to our teens experiencing secondary and tertiary issues on top of the primary issues associated with a neurodivergent diagnosis.

If you are looking for ways to better support your teen, don’t miss this episode.

As Jason says, “You can either make it really hard and be miserable throughout the entire process, or you can accept it for what it is and enjoy the journey.”

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• What meeting our children where they’re at can look like.
• Understanding what Jason calls, “Comparison Fatigue.”
• What is KEY for neurodivergent teens and young adults to be OK.
• What teens & young adults need to develop well.
• Four ways to motivate teens & young adults.
• What we all need to feel good enough.
• What happens when teens get knocked down too much.
• Why primarily wanting our kids to DO WELL can be a big mistake and the wrong issue to focus on.

Featured on the Show:

• Visit NeuroDevMentoring.com to learn more about out our specialized program for neurodivergent young adults.
• Follow Debbie on Instagram!

👉 If this episode resonated with you, we’d love for you to leave a quick 5 star review sharing your favorite takeaway. It helps us create more meaningful content for listeners like you.

📩 Want more insights and practical tools? Be sure to join our email list for inspiration and updates.

🔵 For deeper support, consider joining our NDM Circle Community at NDM.Circle.so—a space for parents and professionals navigating the complexities of parenting neurodivergent young people.

It’s time for some neurodivergent girl talk! We invited Caitlin to come talk about the unique presentation and issues neurodivergent females experience. They’re often misunderstood and misdiagnosed or go undiagnosed until later than their male counterparts.

Unfortunately, because three times as many boys are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as are girls, most of the research has been directed at neurodivergent males.

This makes it even more important for us to understand some of the key differences in how females present and to understand their unique needs.

We appreciate Caitlin joining us and sharing her deep understanding and tips for how to best support our neurodivergent female loved ones.

Caitlin Galt is a licensed clinical mental health counselor who works with a young adult population at Aspiro Wilderness Therapy Program. She specializes in Autism Spectrum Disorder, NVLD, family systems, anxiety, identity issues, mood disorders, trauma, addictive behaviors, and ADHD.

You’ll want to share this episode far and wide with anyone parenting or mentoring neurodivergent females.

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• Red flags to keep an eye out for if you suspect your daughter may be neurodivergent.
• What differentiates a neurodivergent diagnosis in females from other common misdiagnosis.
• Why females often get misdiagnosed or diagnosed later than their male counterparts.
• Why neurodivergent females struggle to navigate social situations.
• What is masking and why is it more common among neurodivergent females than in males.
• The importance of comprehensive mentoring and teaching of relationship skills.
• Caitlin’s tips for parents of neurodivergent females.

📩 Want more insights and practical tools? Be sure to join our email list for inspiration and updates.

🔵 For deeper support, join our NDM Circle Community at NDM.Circle.so—a space for parents and professionals navigating the complexities of parenting neurodivergent young people.

♾️ Visit NeuroDevMentoring.com to learn more about out our specialized co-ed program for neurodivergent young adults.